In Ser. No. 781,166, there is disclosed and claimed a method of chemically polishing quartz crystal blanks involving treating the quartz crystal blanks with an etching solution at high pressure in a high pressure vessel. The Ser. No. 781,166 method, although desirable for treating a quartz crystal blank having piezoelectric properties and thus suitable for use in a crystal oscillator does not teach or suggest that the method could be usable for treating any other type of material such as for example, a fused quartz or glass type material that does not have piezoelectric properties.
In this connection, fused quartz or glass is not piezoelectric. It cannot be used in quartz crystal oscillators. It is not cut from a crystal and is not doubly rotated. Fused quartz has a random internal orientation.
Fused quartz has potential for use in electrical components having low electric loss, high temperature stability and high heat shock resistance and low thermal expansion. In such application, it would be desirable to improve device fabrication by removing surface damage such as microcracks from the surface or the fused quartz and polishing the surface of the fused quartz.